Omar Bakri Muhammad

Jul 19

**DOB:** 1958

**Nationality:** Syrian

**Location:** Lebanon
**Ideology/Affiliation:** Salafi

**Type of Leader:** Radical Preacher

Biography

Omar Bakri Muhammad is a Syrian-Lebanese Islamist militant leader, born in Aleppo to a wealthy family. At the age of five, he joined the Al-Kutaab Islamic boarding schools to learn Quran and Qur’anic Sciences, Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet of Islam and his Companions), Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), and Seerah (The detailed biography of the Prophet of Islam).

He then joined the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood at a young age. Later, Bakri moved to Cairo and Egypt where he studied at Al-Azhar University for a few months. He also studied at the university of Umm Al-Qura in Mecca and the Islamic University of Madinah.

According to an interview with "Jamestown Special Correspondent" Mahan Abedin, Omar joined Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Beirut and maintained contacts with it in Cairo, and established a cell linked to the same Islamic movement in Saudi Arabia. He also worked to expand Hizb ut-Tahrir in the UK before leaving the group and moving to another Islamist organisation, Al Muhajiroun.

In 2004, he said that Muslims would give the West “a 9/11, day after day” if Western governments did not change their policies. Shortly after the 2005 London bombings, The Sunday Times reported that “a dozen members” of the Al-Muhajiroun group “have taken part in suicide bombings or have become close to Al-Qaeda and its support network”. After living for 20 years in the UK, Omar Bakri moved to Lebanon after which he was informed by the British Home Office that he is banned from entering the United Kingdom.

On 14 November 2010, Bakri was arrested by the Lebanese police and was transferred to Beirut. Shortly before, he told the reporters of Lebanon's state-run National News Agency that he would “not spend one day in prison” and that he will not hand himself in to any court as he doesn’t “believe in the law in Britain as in Lebanon”. He was sentenced to life in prison in a terrorism case but was released on bail after a witnesses who had testified withdrew their testimony.

In October 2014, Bakri was sentenced to six years in prison with hard labour by a Lebanese court for forming a Lebanese affiliate of the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front, a Syrian terrorist group, and for setting up a training camp for their fighters in Lebanon.

In April 2023, the 64-year-old was finally released from jail after serving long beyond his six-year sentence.

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Evidence of Hate Speech/Incitement:

October 2014: In a statement criticizing the Lebanese government, Bakri said that the Lebanese Army is an “Infidel army” operated by an “Infidel state”. Following this statement, A Lebanese military court sentenced Bakri to three years in prison. During his interrogation by the military court, Bakri said that his dream is to see an Islamic State in Lebanon.

June 2012: In a TV interview with BBC News Arabic, Bakri stated that he is not a member of Al Qaeda, the militant group, but he considers news linking him to the group as an honor from God that he doesn’t deserve. He also said that he shares the same Salafi ideology with Al Qaeda.